“Cassowaries are large, flightless birds related to emus and (more distantly) to ostriches, rheas, and kiwis”, writes Olivia Judson in the September issue of National Geographic magazine. How large? People-size: Adult males stand well over five foot five and top 110 pounds. Females are even taller, and can weigh more than 160 pounds. Dangerous when roused, they’re shy and peaceable when left alone. But even birds this big and tough are prey to habitat loss. The dense New Guinea and Australia rain forests where they live have dwindled. Today cassowaries might number 1,500 to 2,000. And because they help shape those same forests – by moving seeds from one place to another – “if they vanish”, Judson writes, “the structure of the forest would gradually change” too. (Photo by Christian Ziegler/National Geographic)

This picture taken on July 25, 2014 shows people cooling off in a waterpark in Suining, southwest China's Sichuan province. Meteorological departments issued an orange alert for high temperature as a heat wave embraces Sichuan province, with temperature of most area topped 37, local media reported. (Photo by AFP Photo)

A Rohingya Muslim from Myanmar (R), who tried to cross the Naf river into Bangladesh to escape sectarian violence, cries near his family in a Bangladeshi Coast guard station in Teknaf on June 19, 2012, before being sent back to Myanmar. (Photo by Munir Uz Zaman/AFP Photo)

A dachshund portraying a racehorse, trots down Duval Street in Key West, Florida, December 31, 2014. About 175 dachshunds and other dogs participated in the event that preludes four warm-weather takeoffs on New York City's Times Square ball drop. (Photo by Steve Panariello/Reuters/Florida Keys News Bureau)

A statue of the Risen Christ is carried during an Easter Sunday procession in Cospicua, outside Valletta, Malta April 5, 2015. (Photo by Darrin Zammit Lupi/Reuters)

A model walks the runway during the BLACK TAPE PROJECT show at New York Fashion Week Powered By Art Hearts Fashion at The Angel Orensanz Foundation on September 9, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Arun Nevader/Getty Images for Art Hearts Fashion)

A model presents a creation during the 2018 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in New York City, New York, U.S., November 8, 2018. (Photo by Mike Segar/Reuters)

Skeletons are arranged in a bar scene as part of a competition to create Day of the Dead altars on pedestrian Regina Street in central Mexico City, Tuesday, November 1, 2016. The holiday honors the dead as friends and families gather in cemeteries to decorate their loved ones' graves and hold vigil through the night on Nov. 1 and 2. (Photo by Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo)